The drugs and guns kingpin who sparked a global manhunt

Details of a major police operation that spanned Nottingham, Manchester, Spain and Dubai can now be revealed after nearly seven years.

It centred on Craig Moran, a major figure in organised crime during the time Nottingham was labelled "gun crime capital of the UK" in the early 2000s by national tabloid newspapers.

Following his release from prison, an upsurge in firearms crime in the city from 2017 was linked to drugs coming from Manchester, via Moran, but a gangland dispute forced him to flee to Marbella in Spain, where he was attacked by rivals.

After moving again, this time to Dubai, Moran was arrested and extradited in 2020, and has been convicted as part of the operation that saw a number of trials, the proceedings of which ended this month.

Moran, now 42, started as part of a gang based in Nottingham's Bestwood estate, which was unofficially run by Colin Gunn, a notorious criminal whose influence left the city with a terrible reputation, according to a former chief constable.

Gunn's group was behind many of the crimes which, in 2003, led to newspapers describing Nottingham as "assassination city" and "gun crime capital of the UK".

One of the most shocking was the murder of the jeweller, Marian Bates, who was shot dead in a bungled robbery.

Moran was jailed for 13 years for plotting the armed raid at the Time Centre in Arnold, Nottinghamshire.

He was released in April 2017.

Nottinghamshire Police's Operation Encyclic began six months later, after a pump-action sawn-off shotgun was discovered in a raid on a house in Leybourne Drive in Bestwood.

This proved key evidence, as the firearm was found to have been used in Manchester, and it contained the DNA of Callum Sims, the cousin of Moran.

A month later, officers recovered two handguns inside a car abandoned in Morrell Bank in Bestwood - close to Sims's home.

The police operation escalated between December 2017 and February 2018, when gunshots were fired at four different locations in and around Bestwood - with one man shot in the leg inside the Duke of St. Albans pub.

In April 2018, police executed a warrant at Wendling Gardens in Bestwood, the home of Lee Hudson, Moran's nephew.

Officers found 58 cannabis plants, cannabis in bags, and growing equipment. There was also £13,000 in cash, a cash counting machine, two encrypted mobile phones and 131 rounds of ammunition.

Nottinghamshire Police Assistant Chief Constable, Rob Griffin, said the gun attacks prompted a "robust" police response.

"This was the first time in a long while we had seen firearms criminality on the Bestwood estate," he said.

"We saw an upsurge in the discharge of firearms at or around the same time."

ACC Griffin said Moran was identified as a "significant threat" because he was arranging the delivery of guns and significant quantities of drugs into Nottingham.

"He is frankly a gangster," he said.

"At that time he was the head of the Bestwood organised crime group.

"We very, very, quickly started to connect the recovery of firearms in Nottingham to an organised crime group in Manchester."

'Stereotypical gangster'

Moran was found to be leading the Nottingham operation while Jodie Danson, 43, ran it in Salford.

ACC Griffin said Moran claimed to work as a fitness instructor and thought he was above the law.

"He had no legitimate means of income but drove an £80,000 Range Rover Sport which cost him over £1,200 a month to lease and had an appetite for designer clothing and expensive hotels," he added.

"He made payments exclusively in cash. He lived a stereotypical gangster lifestyle."

Moran already suspected the police were bugging his Range Rover when the breakthrough in Operation Encyclic came in July 2018.

The East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) intercepted a car driven by Sims, carrying six kilos of heroin and cocaine into Nottingham from Manchester.

Detectives intercepted phone conversations, which showed that drug suppliers blamed Moran for the seizure and expected him to reimburse them.

Moran then went on the run before several other members of the Bestwood and Salford crime groups were arrested.

An international manhunt was launched after Moran fled the UK by crossing from Dover to Calais, hidden in the back of a lorry.

He established an "extravagant lifestyle" in Marbella, but he was still a target for reprisals and was seriously injured in what ACC Griffin described as a "brutal attack".

He was shot in the kneecaps, and slashed across his face and mouth.

A European arrest warrant was issued for his arrest but after he was attacked in Marbella, Moran fled to Dubai.

"He was spending lots of cash, he was living in fancy hotels," ACC Griffin said.

"It was eventually a special forces team [in Dubai] that arrested him, and then his extradition followed."

The extradition warrant named Gunn as a "close associate" of Moran.

Gunn was jailed for life in 2006 for conspiracy to murder couple John and Joan Stirland in a revenge attack over the actions of Mrs Stirland's son Michael O'Brien.

Documents also showed that after his release from prison, Moran had lived in a Nottingham house that was owned by Gunn, leading to speculation from some officers that the jailed crime boss was still giving orders from behind bars.

But ACC Griffin dismissed claims Gunn still had influence in Nottingham as a "fable".

"In my opinion, I don't think that's what was happening," he said.

"Craig Moran, I think, stood alone and saw a void in what he saw as a lucrative market.

"I suspect he saw a vacuum in that area, saw an opportunity in the market, and seized upon it."

'Shut down'

After a series of court cases, the last of which ended on 18 June, Operation Encyclic can now be reported.

ACC Griffin says organised crime has a devastating impact on the public and leaves scars on communities.

"It undermines neighbourhoods and it exploits the vulnerable, not to mention the coercive impact it has on the economy," he said.

"This investigation shows how persistent we are at ensuring those who cause the most harm to our communities and try and make money through crime will be dealt with robustly and their operations shut down.

"We will use all the investigative tools necessary to ensure we take their so-called drugs empires away from them."

The defendants convicted as part of the operation were:

• Craig Moran, 42, formerly of Revelstoke Way, Rise Park, Nottingham, admitted conspiracy to transfer a prohibited weapon, conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and conceal/disguise/covert/transfer/remove criminal property

• Lee Hudson, 26, formerly of Wendling Gardens, Bestwood, Nottingham, admitted possessing ammunition without a firearms certificate, conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, producing Class B drugs, possessing Class B drugs with intent and possession of criminal property

• Callum Sims, 37, formerly of Morrell Bank, Bestwood, Nottingham, admitted conspiracy to transfer a prohibited weapon, conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and possessing a weapon for the discharge of a noxious liquid/gas/electrical incapacitation device

• Calum Kirk, 25, of Whitton Close, Bestwood, Nottingham, admitted affray

• Darren Bexon, 38, formerly of Huggett Gardens, Top Valley, Nottingham, admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, conspiracy to supply a Class A drug, and conspiracy to produce a controlled drug of Class B

• Richard Jones, 51, formerly of Edgeware Road, Newton Heath, Manchester, admitted possession of ammunition without a certificate, possessing Class B drugs with intent, possession of a Class A drug, possession of a Class B drug and two counts of possession of a firearm

• Dean Hudson, 25, of Totland Drive, Nottingham, admitted producing a Class B drug and possessing Class B drugs with intent

• Jodie Danson, 43, formerly of Edmund Street, Salford, Manchester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess, purchase or acquire prohibited weapons without authority, conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of Class A, and conspiracy to supply a Class B controlled drug

• Craig Bailey, 35, of Watkins Avenue, Salford, Manchester, admitted to participating in criminal activities of an organised crime group

• John Newns, 43, of Asgard Drive, Salford, Manchester, admitted conspiracy to supply a Class B controlled drug and producing a Class B drug

They will be sentenced at a later date.